"Also, I'm going to do everything I can to stop you from 'making something wonderful' with my own company's products. It was irresponsible for Heathkit to put high-voltage electronic equipment into the hands of the common folk. Someone could get shocked, or burn themselves with a soldering iron. And those Heathkit people didn't even bother to invent proprietary screws, so any kid with a quarter-inch nutdriver could take the cover off and get a face full of X-rays. No, not for us."
It is really interesting to think about what the version of Jobs who talked so reverently about those kits would have thought if he were shown the Apple "what is a computer" ad from a few years ago.
Jobs was certainly an inspirational entrepreneur and CEO but he always talked out of both sides of his mouth. He'd mug for the cameras and say all of that lofty stuff about creativity, bicycles for the mind, etc., and then go back to the office for a knock-down, drag-out fight with Woz about whether the Apple ][ should come with expansion slots or a padlock.
In business terms, Heathkit isn't something that he would have respected as anything but an unscalable niche hobby. Sucks that he would've been right about that.
Be careful what you wish for, Apple Corporate might make a "Tinkering Program" where they ship you a flight case full of $40,000 worth of oscilloscopes and GPIO for a weekend so you may implement your idea. Only if you're okay paying 30% royalties on your invention of course, where would you be without their generous help after all?
